Meaning & Origins

Old Irish name, which is borne in the Fenian sagas by a grandson of Finn mac Cumhaill (Finn MacCool). It was resuscitated by the antiquarian poet James Macpherson (1736–96), author of the Ossian poems. It is now also a characteristically Scandinavian name; it was introduced to Sweden because Napoleon, an admirer of the works of Macpherson, imposed the name on his godson Oscar Bernadotte, who became King Oscar I of Sweden in 1844 (see also Malvina). In more recent times it has been associated particularly with the Irish writer and wit Oscar Wilde (1854–1900), and with the annual awards for achievement in the film industry made by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Oscar is one of a number of Celtic names that have recently come into general use and have become increasingly popular since the 1990s.

Probably an altered spelling of the English habitational names Bilbrough or Bilborough, from Bilbrough in North Yorkshire or Bilborough in Nottinghamshire. Both places are named with an Old English personal name, Bila or Billa, + Old English burh ‘stronghold’, ‘fortification’.